(316) 
At this point attention may be called in passing to the more 
recent investigations which have shown certain peculiari- 
ties in the part which the endosperm plays in the nutrition 
of the embryo. Balicka-Iwanowska‘ in studying the em- 
micropylar and chalazal haustoria of endospermic origin. 
In a recent contribution, Johnson* has pointed out the diges- 
tive function of the endosperm in the perisperm-bearing 
seeds of certain Piperaceae. 
Attention has repeatedly been called to the function of the 
suspensor as a means of conducting nutritive substances. In 
1858 Hofmeister* stated that an unusually long and well 
developed suspensor is accompanied by weakly developed or 
almost entirely suppressed endosperm in 7ropacolum, Trapa, 
the Geraniaceae and the Caryophyllaceae. Treub®” con- 
cluded that the suspensor performed a physiological function 
in the transmission of nutritive substances, and that the want 
of a suspensor was correlated with the character of the outer 
cell-walls of the embryo. He says in substance that the 
embryos are nourished by means of strongly developed sus- 
pensors; while the outer cell-walls of the embryos are 
strongly cuticularized, the suspensors of these on the con- 
trary consist of pure cellulose (Herminium Monorchis). 
Embryos with rudimentary suspensors or none at all, had a 
thin and permeable cuticle. In the Leguminosae, Guignard * 
found cases in which embryos with rudimentary suspensors 
or none at all were at a very early stage completely sur- 
rounded by endosperm. The development of the complex 
coenocytic suspensor of Orodus is accompanied by the scanty 
formation of endosperm, and the author suggests that it may 
find its chief function in the nutrition of the embryo. 
The work of Koorders® furnishes us with a unique case in 
which the suspensor acts as a means of transmission of nutri- 
tive materials which it obtains through certain of the endo- 
sperm cells that attach themselves to the suspensor and elon- 
gate into tubular bodies, acting as haustoria. In this case the 
embryo is cuticularized over its outer surface until the coty- 
